If you’ve ever clicked around on Pinterest or Etsy you’ve seen something with this quote on it. Whether it be a mug, phone case or printable this Shakespeare quote is quite popular. It’s from ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’, and even though we read it in grade school I didn’t realize how powerful that quote was until later in life. It’s one of my go-to affirmations whenever I’m feeling small and insignificant in the world, and it really hit home when I was watching ‘Black Girls Rock’.
Now this isn’t going to be a full recap (Luvvie did a great one of those on her blog yesterday), but I do want to touch on Amandla Stenberg’s speech Tuesday night after she received her Young, Black and Gifted award. Many of you know her as Rue from the ‘Hunger Games’ movie series, but she’s been acting for a while now (she was little Zoe Saldana in ‘Columbiana’) and even went viral with her ‘Don’t Cashcrop my Cornrows’ video. If you haven’t watched that you should.
Amandla said something in her speech that night that struck a nerve with me. Her exact words were “I remember looking in the mirror when I was a little girl, and looking and all that hair, and being like, “Ugh why is that there?” I wanted it to go down so much. I remember suppressing it and brushing it. And being so frustrated that I was so big and so bold. I felt like I took up too much space.” Whoa. This young lady is 12 years younger than me, but I can totally relate to that! My big hair, my big personality, I remember being ashamed of it all and wanting to not only shrink in size but in presence.
She then went on to say “…I have learned that I do not thrive despite my blackness. My blackness does not inhibit me from being beautiful and intelligent. In fact it is the reason the reason I am beautiful and intelligent.” Y’all if that isn’t the Shakespeare quote personified I don’t know what is. William Shakespeare didn’t know it then, but his words empowered many women, especially this black woman who’s not only going to be fierce, but is going to rock!